Steve Palmer's Open Championship first-round leader tips & best bets

Golf tips, best first-round leader bets and player analysis for the Open Championship at the Old Course, St Andrews.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event and Golf, 6.30am Thursday

Best bets

Lucas Herbert first-round leader
1pt each-way 100-1 bet365

Tommy Fleetwood first-round leader
1pt each-way 50-1 bet365

Preview

The forecast for the breeze to slowly but surely increase as Thursday wears on makes the earliest of starters of most interest for Open Championship first-round leader, particularly given how firm and fast St Andrews is playing.

A sunny day should see the already slightly baked track get even drier in the afternoon, making scoring more difficult, and those with an early tee-time can enjoy more receptive greens. A two-pronged first-round-leader attack on Lucas Herbert and Tommy Fleetwood is recommended.

The short-game of both Herbert and Fleetwood has been excellent this season - and both could get easily get on an early charge. Herbert finished seventh on his Dunhill Links debut in 2018, while Fleetwood has a long record of featuring on the Dunhill leaderboard and his 67-67 weekend in the Scottish Open was an ideal warm-up.

Herbert has twice finished fourth in the Scottish Open on links terrain. From starting berths at 7.30am and 8.14am respectively, expect early inroads.

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